It's September and we've had one night cool enough to sleep with the windows open. Within 12 hours of this, I already switched out my Scentsy air freshener to "Mulled Cider" and was looking up fall baking recipes and planning a week full of soups, crock pots, and pasta. I think it's supposed to be in the 80's again on Tuesday. I may have to re-visit the meal plan.

But seriously:
Baked Raspberry Cheesecake Oatmeal?
Cauliflower Chowder?
Gnocchi a la Sorentina?
Maple Apple Granola?
I'll be back for you all.

I have about 7 weeks left until my due date, and am still trying to load up on protein. This shake is easy, packs some fall flavor, and is infinitely more guilt-free than yesterday's pumpkin spice latte. Sorry about that, baby.



Coconut Cinnamon Ginger Protein Shake

1 cup coconut milk
2 T shredded coconut, I used unsweetened
1 T coconut oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond flavoring
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
2 scoops protein powder (I used Body by Vi ViShape Sweet Cream)
Ice to thicken (8-10 cubes, or whatever you like)

Blend in blender until smooth. Makes 1 serving.

Besides picking apples, we drank hot apple cider, ate apple pie with ice cream, and sampled various dips and spreads. OH. And ate pumpkin donuts. There were hundreds and hundreds of people at the orchard, and you could smell the donuts from way out in the field where we parked. It was out of control delicious.


Now I am even more excited for the apple trees in our (barren) backyard to get big enough to have apples! I planted a Honeycrisp and a Pixie Crunch back there this spring, and there are two small mystery trees planted by the previous owners. One mystery tree bore a single miniature apple this summer, and the other did nothing. According to Gurney's, where I bought my apple trees, the Pixie Crunch apple is a similar texture to Honeycrisp but with a sweeter flavor. Honeycrisp 2.0. Thankyou, scientists.

There was frost on my car this morning. This means pumpkin season!

I have a small stockpile of pumpkin that I hoarded since last fall that was calling to me from a moving box somewhere in the basement. I think my mother may have given it to me as part of my birthday present last year. I love being born in November.

During the off season when the general public views eating pumpkin pie, pumpkin smoothies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin bars etc as politically incorrect, the pumpkin hoard waited for fall.

I found this recipe online at The Country Cook for Pumpkin bread with a butter/brown sugar glaze. I wanted a recipe that was moist and dense, that you hardly had to butter. I changed a few things, namely doubling the caramel glaze and subbing out half the oil for coconut oil.

Pumpkin Caramel Bread

First mix:
2 eggs
1/3 c. water
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. coconut oil (or use more vegetable oil)
1 15oz. can pumpkin

Then add:
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmet
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 c.  brown sugar
1 3/4 c. flour

Pour into greased loaf pans:
1-1.5 pounder OR 1-1 pounder + 1-mini loaf

I filled the pans about 2/3 full.

Bake at 350 degrees until toothpick comes out clean. My mini was done after about 40 minutes and my 1-lb pan was done at about 55. A 1.5 pound loaf would take about 60-75 minutes.

For caramel glaze: (approx)
4 T butter
4 T brown sugar
4 T milk

Melt in a small saucepan and boil gently for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Poke baked loaves with a fork and slowly pour glaze overtop. It's supposed to seep in. Mine mostly sat on the top, but it turned out as a nice caramel coating. (If you want a seepier-caramel, I suggest checking out the original recipe).

Optional:
Add a layer of chopped pecans on top of the caramel. I was cooking for a no-nut audience so I left this part out.

For more Vroom Kitchen recipes, check out the recipe tab up top!

I might even go out of my way to step on the ones that look especially crunchy. Irresistable!!

So we might as well walk around town! How else are we supposed to go to the park, hit some garage sales (not that we had any money along... or any money to spend anyway), have a near-smear experience with a truck of bales, and get to smell someone else's gourmet grilled supper!! ...and try to forget that we ate cereal and chicken at the commons.